What Does a Mental Health Specialist Do?

We looked at the average mental health specialist annual salary and compared it with the average of a community health counselor. Generally speaking, community health counselors receive $4,017 lower pay than mental health specialists per year.

While the salaries between these two careers can be different, they do share some of the same responsibilities. Employees in both mental health specialists and community health counselors positions are skilled in patients, social work, and rehabilitation.

These skill sets are where the common ground ends though. A mental health specialist responsibility is more likely to require skills like "substance abuse," "therapeutic relationships," "autism," and "mental health care." Whereas a community health counselor requires skills like "behavioral health," "eating disorders," "mental health disorders," and "medication education." Just by understanding these different skills you can see how different these careers are.

Community health counselors tend to make the most money in the health care industry by averaging a salary of $41,674. In contrast, mental health specialists make the biggest average salary of $47,531 in the government industry.

The education levels that community health counselors earn is a bit different than that of mental health specialists. In particular, community health counselors are 2.1% more likely to graduate with a Master's Degree than a mental health specialist. Additionally, they're 0.7% more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.

Next up, we have the youth care specialist profession to look over. This career brings along a lower average salary when compared to a mental health specialist annual salary. In fact, youth care specialists salary difference is $8,366 lower than the salary of mental health specialists per year.

Not everything about these jobs is different. Take their skills, for example. Mental health specialists and youth care specialists both include similar skills like "patients," "social work," and "mental health" on their resumes.

But both careers also use different skills, according to real mental health specialist resumes. While mental health specialist responsibilities can utilize skills like "rehabilitation," "mental illness," "therapeutic relationships," and "direct patient care," some youth care specialists use skills like "customer service," "excellent time management," "minor maintenance," and "direct care."

It's been discovered that youth care specialists earn lower salaries compared to mental health specialists, but we wanted to find out where youth care specialists earned the most pay. The answer? The government industry. The average salary in the industry is $39,391. Additionally, mental health specialists earn the highest paychecks in the government with an average salary of $47,531.

On the topic of education, youth care specialists earn lower levels of education than mental health specialists. In general, they're 13.9% less likely to graduate with a Master's Degree and 0.7% less likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.

The third profession we take a look at is living specialist. On an average scale, these workers bring in lower salaries than mental health specialists. In fact, they make a $10,562 lower salary per year.

By looking over several mental health specialists and living specialists resumes, we found that both roles utilize similar skills, such as "mental health," "cpr," and "substance abuse." But beyond that the careers look very different.

As mentioned, these two careers differ between other skills that are required for performing the work exceedingly well. For example, gathering from mental health specialists resumes, they are more likely to have skills like "patients," "social work," "rehabilitation," and "vital signs." But a living specialist might have skills like "foster care," "developmental disabilities," "emergency situations," and "emergency first aid."

Additionally, living specialists earn a higher salary in the non profits industry compared to other industries. In this industry, they receive an average salary of $37,646. Additionally, mental health specialists earn an average salary of $47,531 in the government industry.

When it comes to education, living specialists tend to earn lower education levels than mental health specialists. In fact, they're 9.8% less likely to earn a Master's Degree, and 0.4% less likely to graduate with a Doctoral Degree.

Intervention specialists tend to earn a higher pay than mental health specialists by about $2,859 per year.

While both mental health specialists and intervention specialists complete day-to-day tasks using similar skills like patients, social work, and mental health, the two careers also vary in other skills.

While some skills are shared by these professions, there are some differences to note. "rehabilitation," "cpr," "vital signs," and "mental illness" are skills that have shown up on mental health specialists resumes. Additionally, intervention specialist uses skills like classroom management, group sessions, developmental disabilities, and mathematics on their resumes.

Intervention specialists earn a higher salary in the government industry with an average of $52,625. Whereas, mental health specialists earn the highest salary in the government industry.

In general, intervention specialists reach similar levels of education when compared to mental health specialists resumes. Intervention specialists are 2.8% more likely to earn their Master's Degree and 0.3% less likely to graduate with a Doctoral Degree.